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Friday Open thread - Updated
I've been quite absent getting ready for Thanksgiving and the week after.
Pap smears? Not a subject I'm knowledgeable on, but from past experience I know how important they are.
Afghanistan is the most dangerous place in the world to be born, especially if you're a girl.
I just read The Kite Runner which is a total eye opener about what life was like there before, before the Russians and before the Taliban and before, well before the world ended for that country.
I've added the BBC photo of an Afghan girl to illustrate what is at stake if we leave. As much as I hate war and guns, as much as I detest those in charge of Afghanistan, I cannot support us leaving this country. In fact I am strongly in favor of a totally different approach.
Let's plant roots and stay much like we did in Japan, Korea, Germany. Let's stay and give them the time. possibly generations, to change attitudes and join the modern world. nh
Eight Years Later: 'Most Dangerous Place To Be Born'
ABC’s Nick Schifrin files this sad item from Kabul:
In a press conference in Geneva today, the South Asia regional director for UNICEF said this: "Afghanistan today is without a doubt the most dangerous place to be born.”
Dan Toole was speaking about UNICEF’s annual report The State of the World’s Children, which is available here(pdf).
Toole said Afghanistan has the highest infant mortality rate in the world: 257 deaths for every 1,000 live births. He also said a lack of security prevents polio and measles vaccine campaigns and decreases the number of children attending schools, especially girls. 317 schools have been destroyed by the Taliban in the past year, he said, killing 124 people.
Here’s another link(pdf) – to drive the point home. This is the actual list of mortality rates around the world.
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It's open season...on women.
I told you so!
Sad to say
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
corporatist fundiegelicals to take over the Democratic Party.
Women are slowly starting to wake up. But far too many still are looking for the Democratic Party to save them.
Nagahapin. We have to save ourselves.
So d*mn true.
Just a foretaste of ObamaCare. Higher death rates, higher cancer rates, lower survivability rates. Nothing like rationing of healthcare. Lower quality at a higher price. That's ObamaCare. Higher taxes, lower standard of living. What a deal. Hope and change. Time for the rest of the country to get a clue and wake the hell up.
I'm torn about Afghanistan. I don't expect O to do the right thing which would be eliminating Iran from the equation and sending in overwhelming force to deal with the Taliban. Corruption needs to be effectively addressed and the jihadists in Pakistan need to be dealt with. That isn't what that courageous Afghan woman wants, though. She wants us out.
There are 3 choices: the McChrystal way, the Obama way or the highway.
we just have to look for them
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
Female squash player from Waziristan defies the odds
http://pakteahouse.wordpress.com/2009/11/19/female-squash-player-from-waziristan-defies-the-odds/#more-6598
Yes true that about leaving New Hampster...AGAIN.
Thanks Teak. I think I'll quote some more of it.
emphasis mine
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
Talent is a terrible thing to waste.
which I probably said elsewhere in the thread. That book just makes stories like this so much more meaningful. I feel like I've been there.
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
and had a very different takeaway.
The Taliban are wanted in Afghanistan by enough of the Powers-That-Be that they will never be defeated from without.
We need to get out. We will never be able to help them until they want to help themselves.
And right now, they don't.
who have had a taste of freedom? You'd send them back 400 years and back into slavery to their men?
I can't accept that.
Civil Discourse - ERA - A Mother President - Women's Rights - Primary Reform
Did you ever look at the map of the world that I posted that shows color-coded areas that are free and not free? The global norm is that women are enslaved in one way or another in most of the countries and most countries are not free. This will give you an idea:
(Note: this is the latest map and it shows less green than older versions.)
You see that see of purplish-gray, the Not Free areas? Afghanistan is in the midst of it. Can we afford to occupy that country for years on end in a constant struggle against Islamofascism? Not likely. It's hard to change a culture and the problem isn't just the Taliban.
Here's an interactive map but it isn't as up to date as the map above: Democracy Web | The Map of Freedom